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Microbial causes and consequences of nest material selection by leafcutter bees.
Both native and cultivated plants in Arizona are subjected to damage by a diversity of herbivores, parasites, and pathogens. One of the most distinctive types of damage on the leaves of many local plants in southern Arizona is a near-perfect semicircle of missing tissue with an edge so clean it looks as if it has been removed with a scalpel. These neat cuts are the work of leafcutter bees (Megachile spp.), native solitary bees that line their nest cells with leaf discs. This idiosyncratic nesting behavior brings leafcutter bees’ vulnerable offspring into direct contact with not only leaves, but also their diverse communities of associated bacteria, fungi, and other microbes. Are these microbes beneficial or harmful? How do bees respond to them? In this talk, Victoria Luizzi will present work from their recently completed dissertation, delving into the microscopic world on the surface of a rose leaf and exploring how bees make decisions that have consequences for plants, microbes, and their own offspring.